Occupy Wall Street is Growing, Spreading

And it’s here to stay.  Occupy Wall Street started on September 17th, and it took at least a week for the mainstream “media” to even notice.  Even then, they mostly just poked fun at the demonstrators’ funny clothes and the fact that their message was “incoherent” and “inarticulate.”

When one tenth that many teabaggers gather in a park with their dorky costumes and misspelled signs, the media are all over them like stink on shit.  “The American People are rising in anger!”  But I digress…

Now several unions — including the New York Transit Workers Union (TWU Local 100) — are taking up the cause.  They’re organizing a massive rally next Wednesday, October 5th.  A spokesman for TWU Local 100 said:

“While Wall Street and the banks and the corporations are the ones that caused the mess that’s flowed down into the states and cities, it seems there’s no shared sacrifice. It’s the workers having to sacrifice while the wealthy get away scot-free. It’s kind of a natural alliance with the young people and the students…They just seem to be hanging out there getting the crap beaten out of them, and maybe union support will help them out a little bit.”

And the New York Metro 32BJ SEIU, with about 70,000 members, will be showing their solidarity with Occupy Wall Street at a rally on October 12th.

Occupy Wall Street has spread to other cities as well, including Chicago and Boston.

Matt Taibbi is hopeful that Occupy Wall Street will continue to grow into a much larger movement and create the necessary public awareness.

If you aren’t familiar with Matt Taibbi’s Rolling Stone articles and his book “Griftopia,” you don’t know what you’re missing.  He might be the only person on the planet who can take an excruciatingly complicated and boring subject like derivatives and translate it into a Hunter Thompson-esque Gonzo writing style that’ll have you on the edge of your seat.

How to Save the Post Office

As you know, the U.S. Postal Service is about to lay off thousands of workers and/or eliminate some of its services.  And if you listen to the mainstream “media” you probably think the Post Office is in such dire straits because of corrupt unions, or because they’re all just a bunch of faceless inefficient government bureaucrats who don’t care.

FACT:  The Post Office is drowning in red ink because of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. 

Here’s another link.

This law was passed at the end of 2006 by the lame duck Republican Congress.  Under this law, the Post Office was required to pre-fund the health care benefits of all retirees over the next 75 years.  And these huge payments had to be made during a ten-year period.

No other government agency — and no private company — is required to do anything remotely similar to this.  As of this past June, the U.S. Postal Service had a deficit of $19.5 billion.  At that same time, the Postal Service had already made pre-payments of $20.95 billion, as required by the above-mentioned Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

If that law hadn’t been passed, the Post Office would have a surplus of almost $1.5 billion.

And now, to fix the problem:  Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) has introduced a bill that would allow the Post Office to spend more of its own funds to pay down its deficit.  This bill is bipartisan, with 193 co-sponsors so far.  This is the sensible intelligent solution — for Congress to un-create the problem that it created five years ago.

Or there’s the teatard solution:  Darrell Issa (R—Car Thief) is pushing to lay off thousands of postal workers and break the back of the USPS Union.  Figures.

Governor Nikki Haley: “Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves”

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has done a perfect Scott Walker imitation.  Reducing state employees’ health benefits and retirement pensions, constantly trashing the National Labor Relations Board for enforcing existing labor laws — been there done that.

South Carolina has an 11.1% unemployment rate and one out of every five state residents is on Medicaid.  Nikki Haley’s solution:  “Smile.  Turn that frown upside down.  Or you’re fired!”

State employees have been instructed to answer the phone with “It’s a great day in South Carolina.”

Her “reasoning” is that this phrase will put workers in a happy mood, as well as reminding them that they work for the public.

Also, they’re supposed to answer the phone after the second ring.  When the phone rings that first time, employees will drop what they’re doing, smile, and say to themselves “Every day in every way I am getting better and better and better.”  Then by the second ring they’ll be all perky and bubbling with enthusiasm and ready to chirp “It’s a great day in South Carolina.”

If Clint Didier (“Who???”) Ever Gets Elected…

Clint Didier is a retired NFL player who ran for the U.S. Senate last year.  He lost the nomination to Dino Rossi who lost the election to Patty Murray.  But Clint Didier is only 52 and active in rightwing politics.  He might run for public office again.  And again…

Yesterday he spoke to a group of his fellow “The Black Helicopters Are Coming!!!” club members in Sequim, WA.  His main topic was UN Agenda 21.  Check out some of these links.  UN Agenda 21 is either our last chance to save ourselves from an ecological nightmare, or it’s a sinister plot for globalist thugs to conquer America and enslave Her with a One World Government.

You can guess which of those views is held by Clint Didier, based on what he said at yesterday’s meeting:

“I’m sick and tired of the United Nations ruining our country.  Now we know why they won't allow us to drill for domestic oil: because of carbon. They don't want us getting all these natural resources out because they don't want us to populate this Earth anymore.  If the U.N. gets its way, our children will never know what freedom is.  Now we know why they won't let us harvest our timber, and then create tinder boxes that are just a lightning strike away from uncontrollable fire.  Now we know why they're reintroducing the wolves and the cougars.  This is all part of the U.N. agenda. This biodiversity that they're talking about — well, that's an attack on private property rights…While you're hiding in your closet, they are taking away your living room, your kitchen, your dining room and your bedroom.”

All righty then.

And again, he’s 52 and active in politics.  Will he run for office again?  Stay tuned for “Clint Didier:  The Sequel.”

Emergency Relief Drive for Officer Manuel Ramos

Fullerton, CA Police Officer Manuel Ramos has been charged with beating a homeless person to death.  He’s in jail right now, being held on $1 million bail, and he’s afraid for his life.  Can you help?

Ramos and his partner — Jay Cicinelli, who’s free on $25,000 bail — arrested Kelly Thomas on suspicion of possible vehicle burglaries.  Thomas suffered from schizophrenia in addition to being homeless.

Officer Manuel Ramos told Kelly Thomas to place his hands on his knees.  Thomas had trouble complying .  So Ramos clarified his request by yelling “Now see my fists? They are getting ready to Fuck you up!”

Then Ramos repeatedly beat Kelly Thomas with his baton, kneed him, kicked him, and shocked him several times with his stun gun.  Jay Cicinelli arrived sometime later and joined in with the kneeing and stun-gunning.

After ten minutes of nonstop kicks, kneeings, baton blows and Taser shocks, Kelly Thomas was dead.

And now poor scared Officer Manuel Ramos is in jail, being held on $1 million bail, afraid for his life.  And YOU can help:  You can donate bail money to help free this innocent victim — or you can turn the page.

“I Go to Bed Every Night and I Dream of Another Recession”

If you dare:  Take a glimpse into the sickfuck mind of Wall Street trader Alessio Rastani:

“For most traders, it’s not about — we don’t really care that much how they’re going to fix the economy, how they’re going to fix the whole situation.  Our job is to make money from it.  Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years…I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession.  When the market crashes… if you know what to do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this.”

He also said:

“The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.”

This is the kind of corporate criminal that keeps donating to the Republican Party.  If you ever wonder why Congress is so determined to derail any and all possible banking reforms that could prevent another financial meltdown — see the above quote.

Three Executives Jailed after Food Safety Scandal

No, it didn’t happen here in America.  (Are you kidding?!?!?)

In Shanghai, three executives of the Shenglu Food Company were sentenced to five to nine years in prison for adding yellow dye to their packaged steamed buns.  They also lied about the expiration dates on the packages.

The government of Shanghai offers financial awards to people who report food safety violations.

Now I’m not saying we should be more like China, but then again…

Just imagine if our own public safety laws were enforced with one tenth that much zeal.  We’d have to build hundreds of new prisons just to hold all of the sleazy corporate thugs who knowingly jeopardize public health and safety.

But there’s also some good news for American corporations.  Boardrooms across the country must have succumbed into a mass orgasm when they saw this news item about freedom and liberty in Karachi, Pakistan.

This article is about several cities in South Asia having the worst air quality in the world.  But the most striking part was this comment from a resident of Karachi.  He said attempts to improve air quality are being undermined by large polluters who are:

“…playing havoc with the lives of Karachi populace.  Industries and factories are emitting thick clouds of smoke, and no government agency is out there to check them or correct them.”

No, you didn’t just feel an earthquake.  That shaking is from the above-mentioned corporate mass orgasm.

Republicans Want to “Cripple America”

Bingo!  Not only is President Obama getting more assertive in his last few speeches, but he’s finally figured out the GOP’s true agenda.  It has nothing to do with “disagreement over the issues” or “two different visions for America” or any of that bullshit.  And nobody with an IQ higher than ten actually believes that if we keep lowering corporate taxes and keep gutting the agencies that protect us, at some point everything will click together magically and billions of new jobs will be created so fast our heads will be spinning.

Nope.  The Republicans want to cripple America so Obama will look bad and lose the election in 2012.  It’s that simple.  Republicans have repeatedly said — publicly — that their number one priority is to make Obama a one-term president.  And the phrase “Obama’s Waterloo” has been spewed again and again in certain teabagging circles.

At a fundraiser today, Obama said:

“From the moment I took office what we've seen is a constant ideological pushback against any kind of sensible reforms that would make our economy work better and give people more opportunity.”

He said the GOP alternative is “an approach to government that will fundamentally cripple America in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.”

He also took a swipe at Rick Perry.  Without mentioning any names, he referred to “a governor whose state is on fire, denying climate change.”

Pow!

Uh oh, Obama should be careful.  If the Republicans get mad at him, they might start sabotaging every piece of Democratic legislation, even when it’s a bill that the GOP was previously in favor of.  They might even start putting anonymous holds on every new appointment Obama tries to make.  Or if they got really really mad at Obama, they might even accuse him of being a Muslim.  They might even try to persuade their inbred useful idiots that Obama was born in Kenya.

Nah.  Even the Republicans wouldn’t stoop that low.  Would they?

U.S. Military Action Against Pakistan

That’s what was missing — the United States doesn’t have quite enough wars to get quagmired in.  Let’s see, who’s been looking at us funny — Pakistan!

Senator Lindsey Graham (R—Armchair Warrior) said the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if their government continues to support terrorist attacks in Afghanistan:

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease.”

He said the U.S. might need to “elevate its response” and that “all options” should be considered.

OK, time to dust off the pre-Iraq invasion playbook:  Pakistan has Weapons of Mass Destruction!  Most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Pakistan.  Etc.

Hmmm, now wasn’t there something about a huge deficit that was about to engulf the whole country?  Some sort of “crushing debt” that our great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren will still be paying for?  An international financial crisis that was just about to derail the global economy?

Oh well, that was yesterday.  Now, suddenly we’ve got a few hundred spare billions lying around, just waiting to be used for our next invasion.

Maybe the “deficit hawks” and “Austerians” could get together with the armchair warmongers; as in “right hand, meet the left hand.”

Obama to Ban Over-The-Counter Asthma Inhalers, Endangering Millions!!!

No, of course this isn’t true.  It’s just the Rightwing Attack Machine’s latest attempt to get their inbreds all riled up.

This much is true:  the FDA is phasing out the sale of over-the-counter asthma inhalers.  They’ll no longer be available after this year.  But this has nothing to do with Obama or any other president.  The FDA has been planning this since 2006.

The over-the-counter inhalers are being banned starting in 2012 because they contain chloroflouorocarbons (CFCs).  There are other inhalers that contain the more environmentally-friendly hydrofluoroalkane, but these inhalers are only available through a prescription.

I think the whole thing sucks, but again it has nothing to do with Obama (or Bush).  But that isn’t stopping this dickwad from turning the issue into Phase XXXVII of “Obama is taking away our Freedom!”

Mark Hemingway of the Weekly Standard has an article titled “Obama Administration Set to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns.”

The author got his information from an AP article which clearly states that this phase-out is coming from the FDA and not the White House.  But who needs facts when the top priority is to get the teabaggers all fired up.

Most Israelis Favor Creation of a Palestinian State

The possibility of a Palestinian state is creating mass hysteria among Neocons, “American Exceptionalism” drones, Christian Dominionists and other wackjobs.  In the midst of all this drumbeating and saber-rattling, one seemingly invisible group seems to be forgotten:  the citizens of Israel.  Let’s see what they think about all this.

Would you believe:  Almost 70% of Israelis have said that  Israel should accept a Palestinian state.  Shouldn’t their opinion count for something?

This survey was taken by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.

The United States has promised to veto any U.N. Security Council requests for a Palestinian state.  Most Americans are probably also in favor of a Palestinian state.  So much for what the lowly public thinks.

NRA alert: Obama is NOT planning to Take Away Our Guns!!!

All right, that does it!!!  That sneaky Kenyan Muslim president of ours has gone too far this time.  Obama is, is [sputter] He’s NOT going to take away our guns!

What?!?!?!?  It’s a conspiracy!  He’s got something up his sleeve; I just know it.  Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has brought us this dire warning (the linked article has his speech on YouTube):

“The Obama campaign will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone.  In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton assault weapons ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment.  But it’s a big fat stinking lie!  It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country.  Obama himself is no fool. So when he got elected, they concocted a scheme to stay away from the gun issue, lull gun owners to sleep and play us for fools in 2012. Well, gun owners are not fools and we are not fooled.  Sotomayor, Kagan, Fast & Furious, the United Nations, executive orders. Those are the facts we face today… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!”

Which “Constitution” is that — The one that says corporations are people, money equals speech and fetuses are sacred?

In a related story:  there’s been a shocking horrifying discovery that Obama’s Affordable Care Act does NOT contain any Death Panels.  What an outrage!!!

Teabaggers — it’s time to take our country back!

The Truth About Rick Perry’s “Job Creation”

Welcome to Rick Perry’s Texas Miracle — 300,000 new jobs in Texas since 2007, all of which were single-handedly created by Rick Perry.

Only trouble is, most of these 300,000 jobs went to immigrants.

Some of the new jobs went to American citizens who moved to Texas from other states.  But according to the Center for Immigration Studies, most of these jobs went to immigrants from other countries — legal and illegal.

OOPS.  That’s not very teabagger-friendly now, is it.

81% of these new Texas jobs went to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during or after 2007.  Roughly half of these immigrants were illegal.  Therefore, about 40% of Texas’ new jobs went to illegal immigrants.

On top of that, 69% of the growth in Texas’ working-age population was among native-born American citizens.  In other words, most of Texas’ new jobs have gone to  immigrants — legal and illegal — instead of native-born Americans.

And:  Since 2007, the percentage of American-born Texans who are employed has fallen from 71% to 67%.  This decline in employment is roughly the same in Texas and the rest of the country as a whole.

Well there you have it.  Most of Rick Perry’s new low-paying jobs have gone to immigrants rather than native-born Americans.  The Texas Miracle is about as miraculous as the “miracle” taking place in the rest of the country as well.

Sorry, all of you starry-eyed teatards who thought Rick Perry was your knight in shining armor.  Are you sure you want this immigrant-loving white-people-hating RINO running for the White House?

As another tea partier already said about Perry, you’ve gotta do more checking under the hood before you buy the car.

Would Jesus Eat Schweddy Balls Ice Cream?

The American Family Association is boycotting Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream over the obscene name of their newest flavor:  Schweddy Balls.  The flavor is named after a Saturday Night Live skit about a baker named Pete Schweddy, whose best-selling holiday treat is Schweddy Balls.

Yes, that’s what Jesus would do — go into a hissyfit over a double entendre.  The Bible clearly states that suggestive phrases are EVIL.  Don’t believe me?  It says right here — hmmm, wait, that’s not it.

OK, here it is.  OOPS, that’s not it either.  Damn it, it’s in here somewhere…

OneMillionMoms, a group affiliated with the American Family Association, is organizing the boycott.  The group’s website says:

“The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive. Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket.”

OK, now that we’ve taken care of this Earthshaking problem…

No More Pentagon Cuts Or YOUR Son Will Be DRAFTED

This is the word from the House Armed Services Committee Chairman.  Rep. Howard McKeon, R—CA) said if there are any more cuts in defense spending, military service will be so unattractive that there won’t be enough volunteers.  We’ll have to revive the draft.

Good luck with that.  Calling all Chickenhawks.  Report immediately to your nearest induction center.  Uncle Sam Wants YOU.

If you like the current Occupy Wall Street demonstrations going on right now, or last Spring’s pro-union demonstrations in Wisconsin, you’ll love the mass demonstrations and riots that a new draft would create.

The new definition of a pacifist will be:  A chickenhawk who just got his draft notice.

New Career for Pat Boone

What do you do if you’re a washed-up has-been of a “singer” (using the term loosely) who hasn’t had a hit record since Eisenhower was in office? It’s easy — Reinvent yourself as a Birther.

Pat Boone — “who???” — has told the San Francisco Chronicle that President Obama was born in Kenya. He said:

“I was in Kenya a year and a half ago and everybody said, ‘You know, he was born here.’”

Well, that settles it. That’s all the proof I need.

I’ve talked to people who had the misfortune of hearing Pat Boone’s songs on the radio, and they all said “you know, Pat Boone was the most bland untalented singer of all time. His record company must have bribed the radio stations just to get that shit on the air.”

Pat Boone also insists that Obama is spending millions of dollars to hide his records so the public won’t discover his phony birth certificate:

“Why else would he be hiding all of his records? He’s spending millions of dollars so that we do not have his records. And experts have already looked at and been able to verify that this long-form document is a fraud… But the media ignores it… A total fraud. A photo-shopped fraud.”

Old middle-of-the-road singers never die; they just become teabirthers.

Republicans Should be Jailed for Throwing the Country

Yes!!!   Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson said the GOP should be thrown in jail for trying to destroy the country in order to defeat President Obama.  He said:

“You know, if a ballplayer threw a game and they get caught, they go to jail.  Well, what are we going to do to the Republicans who are throwing the country?  They’re throwing our country, and they all should be put in jail for what they’re doing, because they’re destroying our country, because they said at the beginning our one mission is to get rid of President Obama. That was their mission. They don’t care how much they destroy other people. They don’t care whether you go to work. They don’t care about anything.  All they want to do is destroy the president.  And in destroying the president of the United States, you destroy our country. They should be put in jail, each and every one of them, for throwing the country.”

And Senator Bitch McConnell agrees with him.  Well, not the jail part.  McConnell has repeatedly said that making Obama a one-term president is “my single most important political goal, along with every active Republican in the country.”

Throw the game, go to jail.  Hopefully one of those private prisons that Republicans love so much.

Florida sure is a land of contrasts.  They’ve got Rick Scott, the Worst Governor EVER.  But they also have Alan Grayson and Burt Aaronson.  You go guys.

Legislators Shouldn’t Collect Their Pensions Until They’re 66

Betcha didn’t know that members of Congress can start collecting their retirement pensions when they’re fifty.  I didn’t know it until this morning.  But it figures.  These are the same sheltered pampered VIPs who receive every taxpayer-funded (i.e. Socialist) benefit imaginable, while shouting “Bootstraps!” to the rest of us.

So it makes perfect sense — from their cozy little world of fundraisers and limousines — for them to start drawing their own retirement benefits at fifty while simultaneously trying to raise the retirement age for everybody else.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D—Ohio) has introduced the Shared Retirement Sacrifice Act of 2011.  This would require lawmakers to wait until they’re sixty-six (instead of the current fifty) before they can collect their pensions.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Sherrod Brown said:

“…I hear lots of members of Congress, especially, particularly conservative members of Congress, say we should raise the retirement age for Social Security…So, my thought there was that members of Congress should not be able to get their pension…until any earlier than a Social Security beneficiary should get theirs.”

Even if this bill doesn’t pass, it’ll be entertaining to hear the rightwads trying to rationalize why they should be able to retire with full benefits at fifty, while the retirement age for everybody else should be raised to 67.  Or 70.  Or 72...or 77...85...

Occupy Wall Street

That’s the name of this website.

Over a thousand demonstrators are protesting on Wall Street.  (Here’s another link.)

This is supposed to be a long-term civil disobedience campaign to draw the public’s attention to Wall Street’s crimes (whether these crimes are technically illegal or not).  This isn’t getting much coverage from the “media,” and most of their coverage is coming from corporate useful idiots blubbering about “class warfare.”

Granted, it does seem a little too 1960s-ish — a thousand people demonstrating against Wall Street, the mightiest empire in history.  But unlike the corporate-funded teabaggers, these protesters at least believe in something.

And speaking of Wall Street and the one percent of Americans who control everything, our NetFlix movie last night was The Company Men.  It stars Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello and Chris Cooper (who???), who played the wackjob Marine Colonel in “American Beauty.”  The movie is about high-ranking corporate mucky-mucks who get downsized.  In spite of what you’d expect, these downsized corporate bigwigs are actually quite sympathetic in the movie.

I don’t think the movie got much fanfare.  Maybe the public has gotten jaded from too many movies about corporate corruption — Wall Street, Boiler Room, Money Never Sleeps, etc.  But the root cause of most of our problems is the corrupt corporate ownership of America, Inc., so let’s hope the public will get interested.

Republican Candidates: “Iraq? Afghanistan? Huh?”

Rick Perry has been catching shit lately for flipflopping on Afghanistan.  “Bring the troops home NOW.”  “We need at least 40,000 troops in Afghanistan.”

But it’s not just Perry.  The campaign websites of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann all have something in common:  Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t mentioned.  Anywhere.

What happened to “National Security!” and “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists!” "Support Our Troops!"

Apparently that issue is passé now.  Two countries — whose invasions have cost us trillions of dollars — aren’t even mentioned on the websites of three major GOP presidential candidates.  That explains why Perry’s responses are so contradictory and incoherent when the subject comes up.

Maybe this subject should be brought into debates more often.  Democratic strategists:  can you say “Achilles Heel?”

Tom Coburn Wants to Eliminate 80,000 Jobs

Senator Tom Coburn (R—Cocksucker) is about to eliminate 80,000 jobs. How? By blocking a transportation bill that’s already been approved by the GOP-controlled House. The bill provides funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and various highway projects. The bill needs to be on President Obama’s desk by tomorrow.

Coburn is threatening to keep blocking the bill until after tomorrow’s deadline, thereby throwing 80,000 Americans out of work.

Coburn’s “reason” for blocking the bill: the bill includes funding for bike paths and trees along roadways.

And that’s not all. Coburn is also holding up a bill that provides funding for FEMA. This bill is necessary, obviously, to get aid to thousands of disaster victims. And on top of that, the FEMA bill needs to be voted on by the Senate BEFORE the Senate can vote on the FAA bill that Coburn is also blocking.

What should happen to Tom Coburn? For some reason I keep flashing back to the ending of Straw Dogs (the original, since I haven’t seen the new version yet). Any other ideas?

The Galveston “Alternative” to Social Security

It’s January 2013 and President Rick Perry has abolished Social Security. Let’s put a positive spin on things and see how the Galveston Alternative will work for the rest of the country.

In the late 1970s, county employees in Galveston, TX opted out of Social Security. They opened personal savings accounts instead. Rick Perry, in his book “Fed Up,” says:

“…employees in those private plans, having exercised their liberty at Washington’s sufferance, are reaping the benefits.”

And Herman Cain said that retirees in Galveston are “making at least 50 percent more than they would ever get out of Social Security.” (That statement was debunked by a fact-checking site.)

Basically, if you made a ton of money during your working years, you’ll enjoy a nice cushy retirement with the Galveston program. On the other hand — according to the Government Accountability Office — the lower your income and the longer you live after retiring, the less you’ll benefit from this program compared to Social Security.

The financial planner who devised the Galveston plan said:

“We did not weight it in favor of higher- or lower-income people. You put your money in, you invest it, and you get your money out.”

Also, unlike Social Security, payments under the Galveston plan do NOT increase with inflation.

No wonder the Free Marketeers like this “alternative” so much better.

A professor from Syracuse University said:

“If you’re single, if you’re well off and you die within 10 years of retirement, maybe you’ve done better. For most people, it’s somewhere between ‘very bad’ and ‘not very good.’”

So there you have it. This might be what we’re all looking at in 2013. Smile.

How to Warm the Heart of a Teabagger

During last night’s CNN Tea Party Express debate, the audience cheered and applauded on at least two ugly occasions:

The host of the debate, Wolf Blitzer, asked Rick Perry about his previous statement that Ben Bernanke “would be treated pretty ugly down in Texas” and should be charged with treason. The inbred audience burst into applause as soon as Blitzer asked the question.

Wolf Blitzer also asked Ron Paul about his Libertarian views. He asked whether a sick person should be allowed to die in the hospital if he didn’t have insurance. Before Ron Paul could answer, the above-mentioned inbreds erupted into shouts of “Yes!!!”

There isn’t even any point in trying to insult these wastes of oxygen. The evidence rests.

“The Truth About Truthers”

That’s the title of this article by Ted Rall. He’s not a 9/11 Truther himself. But at the end of the article he makes an interesting point. After talking about 9/11, the death of Osama bin Laden, the Wag-The-Dog “rescue” of Jessica Lynch and other coverup/conspiracy theories, he says:

“The evolving accounts of Osama bin Laden's death seemed ideally tailored to create the suspicion that big secrets were being covered up…Why does the federal government feed the conspiracy theorists? Maybe it's unintentional, but probably not. I think the U.S. has become like a Third World dictatorship: the more they keep us guessing, the smarter they seem, and the more we'll fear them.”

And that brings us to Iran in the mid-1970s, where I worked for a brief period. The Shah of Iran was in power; Khomeini’s takeover was still three years away. The conventional wisdom was that one out of every five Iranians was an informant for SAVAK, Iran’s dreaded secret police that made the CIA and KGB look like a few boy scouts playing with walkie-talkies. There was also an opposing theory: that there were actually nowhere near that many SAVAK informants, but the Iranian government wanted everyone to think there were spies everywhere so everyone would be scared shitless and keep their mouths shut.

A Rightwing Troglodyte’s View of 9/11

I wasn’t planning to do a 9/11 post — what it all means, where was I ten years ago today when I first heard the horrifying news, etc. But let’s see what this dire ten-year anniversary means to a few unnamed unlinked knuckle-draggers on the Right:

“For those of you on the left, feel free to Google ‘9/11/2001’ if the date doesn’t ring a bell for you.”

“Then, three years later…the country was one state away (Ohio) from sending to the Oval Office a liberal Masshole with a shameful record of crapping on the American soldiers and palling around with Hanoi Jane. His ‘service’ to this country was a resume-padding means-to-an-end for that schmuck. Yet here we were as a country, pretty much back to the attitude we had before 9/11/2001, hung up on matters that should have paled in comparison to the big matter of ‘Who will keep us safer?’…Then the unthinkable happened: Seven years after that fateful day in 2001, the country elected an unaccomplished leftist ideologue who had never run so much as a lemonade stand, but had plans on bringing the American economy to its knees worse than it already was. Why did Americans do such a foolish thing? Because the brother was adept at reading a teleprompter.”

And this little rightwad had a hissyfit over this column by Paul Krugman — an excellent summary of how the Far Right used the 9/11 attacks as leverage for their longtime agenda.

Let the grunting begin:

“Someone just suggested on Facebook that Paul Krugman should be raped by a camel. I think that's too good for the likes of Krugman. This horrific pussy of a ‘man‘ has taken the one day of the year we should ALL be on the same page…”

Does the Fourteenth Amendment Protect the Unborn?

Don’t laugh. This Earth-shaking topic was actually discussed by several Republican presidential candidates at the APP Palmetto Freedom Forum in Columbia, South Carolina. Yup, we keep going further back in time and the bar keeps getting set lower and lower.

APP stands for American Principles Project. The author of this article, Maggie Gallagher, is the founder of the National Organization for Marriage. The panelists included professor Robert George (who’s also a member of the National Organization for Marriage), Senator Jim DeMint (R—Inbred) and Rep. Steve King (R—Ku Klux Klan).

GOP presidential candidates included: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain. They were asked if the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to unborn human beings and, if so, does Congress have the constitutional authority to enforce this guarantee?

Michele Bachmann gave an unqualified “Yes!” (What’d you expect?)

Mitt Romney hedged and waffled. Damn it, I knew he wasn’t a true Biblehumper. He said he didn’t want a constitutional crisis, but he pledged to appoint justices who would interpret the Constitution “correctly.”

Ron Paul said it’s a “states’ rights” issue. The article doesn’t give Herman Cain’s response; only that he was “surprised” by the question.

And there’s still more good news from this article (if you’re a fetus-worshiper): Every GOP presidential candidate — with the exception of Rick Perry — has pledged to select a vice presidential running mate who supports life and marriage; i.e. fetuses are sacred and God Hates Fags.

Ready now — set your time machines. Twelfth century here we come!

Grassroots Organizations in Favor of Massive Oil Pipeline

The Keystone XL is a massive pipeline project that, if approved, will run from Canadian tar sands mining sites to oil refineries in Texas. Treehuggers are whining about the “environmental impact” or something or other.

In response, thousands of everyday Real Americans have erupted into spontaneous grassroots activism on behalf of oil company profits. Nebraska Energy Forum and Partnership to Fuel America are just two of these grassroots organizations.

With a little help from the oil industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, respectively, these two groups of just-plain-folks hardworking Americans will make sure the Keystone XL pipeline doesn’t get derailed by a bunch of socialist bureaucrats.

The Keystone XL would go through Nebraska and jeopardize the state’s largest aquifer. Nebraska’s Republican governor, both senators and a Republican representative are all opposed to this pipeline and are urging the Obama Administration to halt the project.

Uh oh — looks like Big Oil and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have their work cut out for them. They might need to create a few more of those grassroots organizations and start cranking out a lot more spontaneous demonstrations.

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Q. What’s the difference between Mississippi in the 1950s and Wisconsin in 2011?

A. Sixty years; 919 miles.

Wisconsin’s new Son of Jim Crow voting law is getting more blatant all the time. It wasn’t enough to require everyone to show a photo ID before they can vote. They also closed a bunch of DMV offices — which is where you have to go to get the required photo ID — that happened to be located in low income neighborhoods.

Now they’re trying to extort money out of the citizens who go to the DMV to get their (supposedly free) photo ID card. Wisconsin DMV officials have received a memo from Steve Krieser, executive secretary of the Department of Transportation:

“While you should certainly help customers who come in asking for a free ID to check the appropriate box, you should refrain from offering the free version to customers who do not ask for it.”

This used to be called a poll tax.

Texas Wildfire Victims: “Fuck You Very Much Rick Perry”

No, the Texas wildfires aren’t “God’s punishment,” no matter what Michele Bachmann says. But the fires have been greatly exacerbated by Rick Perry’s twisted priorities. This year, Governor Rick Perry slashed funding for the state’s volunteer fire departments.

Texas’ volunteer fire departments were already under a huge financial strain. Rick Perry took care of that problem by reducing their funding from $30 million to $7 million. That’ll give ‘em something to whine about.

More than 100,000 acres — and more than 1,000 homes — have been destroyed by the fires that are raging across Texas as we speak. Way to go Rick Perry.

In other news: Barack Obama is “Saddam Hussein” and needs to be taken out with “the mother of all wars.” Charles Koch said that at an exclusive gathering of the Kochsuckers’ fan club.

Douchebag of the Week: Matthew Vadum

It wasn’t even a contest this week. The hands down winner is Matthew Vadum. (“Who???”) Outside of his inner circle, most people haven’t heard of him. But the viral outrage over his latest bilge-spew is giving him his fifteen minutes of fame.

And now, without further ado, straight from the horse’s ass’s mouth:

“It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country — which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote. Encouraging those who burden society to participate in elections isn't about helping the poor. It's about helping the poor to help themselves to others' money. It's about raw so-called social justice. It's about moving America ever farther away from the small-government ideals of the Founding Fathers.”

He also says registering the poor to vote is “like handing out burglary tools to criminals.”

All righty then.

If you dare, here’s the original full length article at American Thinker (using that term very verrry loosely).

Obama to Republicans: “OK, I Sacrificed the Environment. Do You Like Me Yet?”

Poor Barack Obama just wants the mean kids to be nice to him. If he keeps doing everything they tell him to do, maybe they’ll quit calling him names and stealing his lunch money. Who knows, if he completely renounces everything he believes in, they might even invite him to sit at the popular table.

The latest group to be thrown under the bus: people who like to breathe clean air. Obama has directed the EPA to withdraw a new smog regulation. Sorry, nerds, but the jocks told me if I did this, they won’t snap towels at me in the locker room. At least not today.

In his ongoing quest to be liked, Obama has allowed the temporary Bush tax cuts — that word again is temporary — to continue. And during the debt ceiling battles, when Republicans said “Lose the safety net or America gets it!” — Obama said “OK. I don’t want any trouble.”

And don’t forget the Public Option. (There’s a name out of the past. That’s sooo 2009.) Candidate Obama campaigned fiercely for the Public Option. President Obama took it off the table.

So far, President Obama hasn’t gotten much mileage out of his “When the GOP says ‘Jump!’ I’ll say ‘How High Sir?’” approach. But if he keeps on renouncing everything he used to stand for, and throwing everybody who voted for him under the bus, maybe, just maybe, the Republicans will finally say “Hey, this guy is OK. Let’s stop picking on him.”

As Albert Einstein famously said: If you try something and it doesn’t work, just keep doing the same thing over and over and over again, and eventually you’ll get the result you wanted.

Rick Perry — Out of the Closet!

No, he’s not gay. It’s even worse: He’s a Comminist!!!

Today, Rick Perry is reassuring his faithful teatards that Medicare is unconstitutional. But now he’s Busted!

Ten years ago, Rick Perry proposed a bi-national health insurance program to cover American and Mexican citizens along the border. Lord Jesus, NOOO!!!

It’s bad enough he was pushing socialized medicine on The American People. Even worse, it includes them filthy Meskins! And that’s not all: Governor Rick Perry also signed the Texas DREAM Act, which provided in-state tuition fees to the college-age children of illegal immigrants.

Governor Perry also signed legislation to INCREASE funding for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

He’s a RINO! I’ll bet that boy wasn’t even born in Texas! And he ain’t gonna make it to that there White House. My fellow teawipe, JoAnn Fleming, spoke for all of us when she said:

“More checking under the hood needed before we buy the car.”